Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the Tetris movie.
When The Tetris Company co-founder Henk Rogers sat down to read the script for the Tetris movie, one nitpick immediately came to mind.
“When I saw the script, I said, ‘Come on, let me drive. I’m a better driver than Alexey,'” Rogers jokes, referring to a car chase that takes place during the movie.
“That’s Zhiguli car. It’s supposed to be driven by Russian driver, that’s for sure,” Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov quips back.
Pajitnov and Rogers have known each other for decades, ever since the real-life events that were adapted for the Tetris movie starring Taron Egerton. The pair recently sat down with IGN to discuss their memories of Tetris’ origins, and how the movie adaptation differs from what actually happened.
‘I wasn’t very impressed to see him’
Pajitnov reflected on initially meeting Rogers when he came to Russia in an attempt to acquire the rights for Tetris. As Pajitnov recalls, he “wasn’t very impressed to see him” at first.
“But as soon as he start talking, I become really charmed,” Pajitnov says. “My goodness, his English was so good. I mean very simple, very honest, very clear, without any kind of trying to sneaking or whatever. Then I realized that this gentleman is the first of the colleague of mine I ever met because there is no such profession as a game designer exist in my country [at] that time. When I realized that we are at the same mission in this world, we kind of became friends. And also I have about a dozen of games in my pocket, which I urge to show to anyone. Basically I have serious motivation to make connections. That’s my part of the story.”
‘Look, if you want little boys to buy your Game Boy, then pack in Mario, but if you want everyone to buy your Game Boy, pack in Tetris.’
The Tetris movie is a dramatic adaptation of Rogers’ mission to acquire the rights to Tetris. The journey stretches from Japan to Russia, as Rogers encounters high-profile figures from Nintendo like Hiroshi Yamauchi, Minoru Arakawa, and Howard Lincoln while also dealing with the challenges of conducting business in Soviet Russia. While Rogers makes it clear that the Hollywood adaptation contains a lot of events that didn’t happen, he says it’s all based in fact.
“I did go to Arakawa and I did convince him to pack in Tetris,” Rogers recalls. “I remember being in his office saying, ‘Look, if you want little boys to buy your Game Boy, then pack in Mario, but if you want everyone to buy your Game Boy, pack in Tetris.’ Those were my words. I made them up on the spot. What I’m saying is it’s based on a true story. So there are bits that absolutely happened, things I actually said, I actually said to my interpreter. ‘I didn’t come all this way to stand in front of a door and not go in,’ something along those lines. And then I went in.”
Pajitnov backs up Rogers’ version of events, painting a picture of a man on a mission.
“[Rogers] actually orders Arakawa and Lincoln to come to Moscow,” Pajitnov says. “He said, ‘Get your asses on the plane.’ Yeah, that’s what actually happened.”
Pajitnov also eventually made his way to Japan, where it seems Rogers gave him a pretty overloaded schedule with the media, as Pajitnov recalls: “He tortured me a lot when I was invited to Japan. He makes 10 days full of interviews, all Japanese game magazines. Oh my goodness. I thought I visited them all.”
Pajitnov and Rogers React to Making and Watching the Tetris Movie
The filmmakers behind Tetris brought Pajitnov and Rogers in to consult on the script, with Pajitnov largely using his input to fix the depiction of Russia and the Soviet Union.
“We kind of work together on the script and we debated a lot. I try to put as much of my input about life in the Soviet Union into the script and fix the obvious stereotypes and mistakes, which was naturally made in the original script. Later on, we gave up to this Hollywood stuff to be in the movie, deciding that we will kind of accept or do the good compromise on everything, which might not happen, but might happen in this particular circumstance.”
Rogers mentions that the filmmakers didn’t let them touch the “Hollywood stuff”, as they instead focused on the historical side of things.
“On some level, it’s a historical event. I did go to the Soviet Union before the fall of the Iron Curtain, and it was very different than it is today, certainly. I like to say it’s kind of like going to North Korea and trying to do something that you’re not supposed to. If you’re on a tourist visa, you step outside your tourist visa, you’re toast in North Korea. I was breaking all those laws and I kind of knew it. But hey, I was testing the water to see how far I could go before I got sent to a Gulag.”
But when it finally came time to watch the movie, Pajitnov and Rogers were thrilled by the fan reactions, specifically to one very nostalgic element of the movie: the Game Boy. Pajitnov shares that their original viewing of the movie was with Apple professionals who didn’t react at all to seeing the Game Boy on screen. But when the pair was invited to the premiere in Austin, it was a different story.
“Believe it or not, but people start to applaud when the Game Boy appears on the screen,” Pajitnov says. “So Game Boy was the real personage, the real hero of the movie, as well as my game Tetris… I was really warmed up by the acceptance of the public. The reception was very warm and very enthusiastic. And that’s a very big pleasure.”
For more from our interview with Pajitnov and Rogers, check out what the two think the future holds for Tetris.
Interview conducted by Kat Bailey.
Photo credit: Rick Kern / Getty Images.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
